Why Survey Design Theory Should Matter to You

The survey is the heart of any survey research project. Whether it’s an intercept survey, a survey of the general population, or a survey of customers or employees, the way you design your survey plays a critical role in shaping the quality of the data and insights that you’ll get.

Because people ask each other questions in everyday life without much thought or effort, people often assume that designing survey questions should be equally intuitive.

It isn’t.

You can find a large selection of academic literature on best practices for survey design and the consequences of poor designs that enable respondents to provide low-quality data.

To begin designing an effective survey, take a step back and try to understand what goes on in your respondents’ heads when they are taking your survey. This step is critical to making sure that your questionnaire makes it as likely as possible that the response process follows that expected path. Similarly, understanding some of the aspects of questionnaire design that can help your respondents to take mental shortcuts and provide low-quality data is also important.

Join me for a webinar on effective questionnaire design on July 13. I’ll help you understand how to get into your respondents’ heads and give you survey design best practices that will help you to get more out of your data.

Webinar Details

Topic: Professional Survey Methodology: Questionnaire Design Theory and Best Practices